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Friday, March 03, 2006

Late last night the U.S. Senate passed Senator Joe Biden’s (D-DE) resolution urging the White House to take swift and decisive action to stop the genocide in Darfur. The resolution, which was cosponsored by Sam Brownback (R-KS) urges President Bush to advocate sending NATO troops to work in support of the African Union forces and that NATO enforce a no-fly zone in Darfur. It also calls upon the UN Security Council to approve a peace enforcement mission that is well trained, well equipped, with adequate troop strength.

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"President Bush has got to begin coordinating immediately with the leadership of the African Union and our NATO allies if we are to stop the ongoing violence in Darfur. The people of Darfur cannot wait for a United Nations peacekeeping force that may take a year to get on the ground," concluded Biden. "There is not a moment to waste if lives are to be saved."

This is just the lastest Darfur-related resolution Congress has passed, including one calling it "genocide" and another urging a weekend of prayer. All well and good - of course, they still haven't been able to pass the Darfur Accountability Act which imposes

sanctions against those responsible for genocide, calls for a new UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions against the Government of Sudan and a high-level U.S. diplomatic initiative to achieve that resolution, calls for a military no-fly zone over Darfur, calls for the extension of the arms embargo to cover the Government of Sudan, and calls for the expansion of the mandate of the African Union force in Darfur and UN troops to include the protection of civilians.

In all fairness, the Senate did pass the act but it stalled in the House. And so the basic fact remains that, when it comes to passing anything other than nonbinding resolutions, Congress does not have a particularly good record.